For most of my adult life, I have owned and operated a small business and have always been cognizant of God’s sufficiency in all of my endeavors. Without question, my partnership with God in the physical realm is due to making the principle of tithing my own. Tithing, returning to God one-tenth of our increase, is God’s basic law of prosperity. It brings blessings and profit. Profit is a valuable return, or gain. And as any businessman will tell you, we are highly in favor of profit. In God’s Word, we learn that tithing is a basic standard by which any believer can see profit and abundance in the physical categories of life.
A little booklet that I received in our ministry’s Foundational Class has paid abundant dividends to me in my business and family life. Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille’s Christians Should Be Prosperous became my launching pad for growth concerning the principles of giving and receiving. Within its pages I was taught the true spiritual nature of prosperity. I was given principles of truth that have helped me prosper far beyond my own calculations or projections. In it I read these verses from the Book of Malachi.
Malachi 3:10-12:
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
And I will rebuke the devourer [the Devil] for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.
And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.
Christians Should Be Prosperous states: “No one is ever poorer for giving, but richer….” That statement alone seems like a paradox—that a person could actually be better off after giving 10 percent to God. Yet, look at all that God promises He will do as we act on His Word by tithing: He promises to open the windows of heaven, to pour us out a blessing, and to rebuke the devourer for our sakes. That’s abundance that reaches beyond any balance sheet!
The profit in giving goes way beyond just having our physical needs met; it’s having such an abundance after tithing that we have enough to give freely and abundantly. We have profit enough so that we don’t cut into our need when we give. Tithing commits the believer to look to God to supply the abundance he needs to prosper and give. When we commit 10 percent of our increase to God, we commit ourselves to trust Him to bless the other 90 percent in a dynamic way—a “windows of heaven” way.
One example that comes to mind is how my wife and I worked with our daughter in getting her ready for college. When she was a high school senior, we would remind her to continue believing God for prosperity in her life and that God would meet her need because she faithfully tithed.
The university she chose to attend offered her a scholarship, but no further financial aid. My wife, being a good steward of our finances, figured out how we could handle the first year, but it would put us on a very tight budget. I knew that my wife, daughter, and I had faithfully tithed and that God promises abundance—so we all just gave it to God.
At the end of the school year, our daughter was invited to the senior class award ceremony. Many of the students were being awarded small amounts of money, and I thought, “Every bit helps.” The English Department awarded her with an envelope, no sum mentioned. On the ride home, she asked me to turn on the interior light. She opened the envelope, and there was a long silence. Then she asked her mother to look at the check because she thought she misread the amount. The check was for $15,469—enough to cover the rest of her freshman tuition!
We all knew it was God Almighty Who supplied this abundance so we didn’t have to squeak by with our minimum need being met. We had an abundance, and were in a better position to give. Later that fall, some believers were in need of financial help due to weather-related damage to their home. Because we were able to help at that time, we did. We had an abundance to give!
Tithing helps us grow in our thinking and attitude to expect God’s abundance. Instead of squeaking by with only the bare minimum covered in our lives, we learn to claim God’s abundance and realize the true profit in giving.
Ephesians 4:28:
Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
In business, it is a joy to labor and provide goods and services that benefit others. As a believing businessman, I treasure my partnership with God and know the true profit in giving. We rely on God to meet our need abundantly. Then He is magnified in our hearts as the One Who opens up the windows of heaven to pour us out a blessing so big that there is not room enough to receive it all. Tithing is a discipline that, when done faithfully and with a believing and meek heart, yields all the benefits that God’s Word promises.
This is a reprint from the July/August 2016 issue of The Way Magazine.
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